Radio access networks (RANs) provide for radio communication links to be arranged within the system between a plurality of user terminals. Such user terminals may be mobile and may be known as ‘mobile stations’ or ‘subscriber units.’ At least one other terminal, e.g. used in conjunction with subscriber units, may be a fixed terminal, e.g. a control terminal, base station, repeater, and/or access point. Such a RAN typically includes a system infrastructure which generally includes a network of various fixed terminals, which are in direct radio communication with the subscriber units. Each of the fixed terminals operating in the RAN may have one or more transceivers which may, for example, serve subscriber units in a given local region or area, known as a ‘cell’ or ‘site’, by radio frequency (RF) communication. The subscriber units that are in direct communication with a particular fixed terminal are said to be served by the fixed terminal. In one example, all radio communications to and from each subscriber unit within the RAN are made via respective serving fixed terminals. Sites of neighbouring fixed terminals may be offset from one another or may be non-overlapping or partially or fully overlapping.
RANs may operate according to an industry standard protocol such as, for example, the Project 25 (P25) standard defined by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) and standardized under the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), or other radio protocols, such as the terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA) standard defined by the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) or the Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) standard also defined by the ETSI. Communications in accordance with any one or more of these standards, or other standards, may take place over physical channels in accordance with one or more of a TDMA (time division multiple access), FDMA (frequency divisional multiple access), or CDMA (code division multiple access) protocol. Subscriber units in RANs such as those set forth above send user communicated speech and data, herein referred to collectively as ‘traffic information’, in accordance with the designated protocol.
Many so-called ‘public safety’ RANs provide for group-based radio communications amongst a plurality of subscriber units such that one member of a designated group can transmit once and have that transmission received by all other members of the group substantially simultaneously. Groups are conventionally assigned based on function. For example, all members of a particular local police force may be assigned to a same group so that all members of the particular local police force can stay in contact with one another, while avoiding the random transmissions of radio users outside of the local police force group.
In addition to emergency responders, other types of subscribers and groups may be serviced by RANs, including for example, electrical utilities, water or sewer utilities, retailers, and railroad workers, among other types. Such mobile subscribers operating in RANs may be interested in location-dependent information, such as weather, traffic, or real-time events or reports (such as AMBER alerts or all points bulletins (APBs). For example, information regarding current and future environmental conditions, especially useful for outdoor workers such as utility and railroad workers, is an often requested location-dependent piece of information used for scheduling and preparedness, among other types of location-dependent data.
In one example, and more specifically, a delivery man using a subscriber unit operating in a RAN may need to know when snow is expected to start so that he or she can plan their route accordingly, a construction worker using a subscriber unit operating in a RAN may need to know which day of the week it is not going to rain so that he or she can schedule jobs appropriately, a pipeline worker using a subscriber unit operating in a RAN may need to know how long he or she has until the sun sets so it can be determined whether to start work on a new section of pipe or not, or a road maintenance supervisor using a subscriber unit operating in a RAN may need to know if it is going to be over 100 degrees come noon time so that he or she can know whether to proceed with a heat-sensitive portion of the job, such as paving a new section of road.
Knowing this information in the field may be operationally advantageous, and may conventionally be acquired via a separate device and separate high-bandwidth radio channel, such as via a personal cell phone operating on a 4G network, separate from a two-way radio subscriber unit that the operator uses to communicate with colleagues.
Conventional subscriber units, such as two-way radios operating in a trunked or conventional RAN, are generally limited in terms of data bandwidth. Often in such RANs, data traffic must share a limited number of narrowband channels with voice traffic, and multiple individual requests for weather data, or other types of location-dependent information, from multiple devices in any particular group of subscriber units could quickly consume all or most available bandwidth at the RAN, negatively impacting voice and other services provided in the RAN.
In addition to bandwidth concerns, many commercial weather data services, amongst other location-dependent information content providers, charge a fee per request. Allowing each individual subscriber unit in a group of subscribers to request weather data at their own desired frequency could lead to substantial additional and undesired charges from the content provider. Therefore, there is a need for an improved method and device for consolidating location-dependent information in a RAN.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure.